SAO elections see few complaints of vote-buying, says EC
The Election Commission (EC) said on Monday that the election for Subdistrict Administrative Organisation (SAO) chiefs on Sunday saw few complaints of vote-buying.
“The EC received 268 complaints related to the SAO elections. Of these, only 20 are about vote-buying,” EC deputy secretary-general Kittiphong Boriboon said.
“Most of the complaints are about campaign posters being destroyed or vandalised, officials’ lack of impartiality and posters not being removed after the election was concluded.
“The Sunday election saw no serious problems or abnormalities from start to finish,” he added. “However, there have been reports of people taking photos of their ballot and voiding their ballots by tearing the ballot paper by accident. But these incidents were relatively rare from more than 60,000 polling stations nationwide.”
Kittiphong added that the EC will carefully inspect all complaints and approve election results within 30 days if no problems are found. In case there are instances of cheating, the commission will complete the investigation and release poll results within 60 days.
“The EC thanks all voters who came out to exercise their rights despite the Covid-19 situation,” he added.